Japanese car maker Toyota is recalling around 625,000 hybrids worldwide – 868 of which are in Portugal – due to a software glitch which can cause cars to shut down while being driven.
Happily, Toyota says the glitch is not believed to have caused any accidents so far. It is linked to software that controls a power converter.
In Portugal, the recall will include 821 models of the Toyota Auris HSD and 47 of the Toyota Prius+.
A source at Toyota Caetano Portugal told Lusa news agency that the company will contact owners affected by the problem “via registered letters in the next few days”.
The software will take “around 30 minutes” to update, and will of course be free.
Toyota says the international recall will include 340,000 cars in Japan, 160,000 in Europe and 120,000 in North America
This is the second time in a year that the car giant has had to recall vehicles. A much larger embarrassment came last year when it had to make changes to 6.3 million vehicles globally (13,000 in Portugal) over potentially-faulty airbags.
